Finally Building A Cellar

[rens]

That looks great. Thanks for posting the pics. Michelle is very understanding.

[Rednick]

I am letting her store chocolate in it, very good of me I think

[Luke W]

Looks great Nick - tell us what ur putting in it - how many bottles of what?

I also store chocolate in mine - its the only place the kids can't get into!


cheers

Luke

[Rednick]

The collection is around 340 at the moment - it's all in cellar tracker under my username, feel free to have a browse

Going to be paying a visit to a VC at the weekend to use up some vouchers!

[Teddy]

Firstly congratulations on your cellar! Well done!

I have just built a climate controlled cellar as well and I have been trying to post on here, but I have some problems with the photos. When I put photos in, you have to scroll down (and sometimes sideways) to view the whole photo. Like the 3 first photos in this post. I would like to have the whole photo in without having to scoll, like the last 11 photos in this post. The photos aren't that big. Can someone help?

Regards,
Trev

[Bigwun]

I would like to have the whole photo in without having to scoll, like the last 11 photos in this post. The photos aren't that big. Can someone help?

The first set of photos are attachments uploaded to this forum. The last set are hosted on photobucket and linked via the [IMG]http://somelocation/pic.jpg[/IMG ] method.

[michel]

I have a cellar in Brisbane
under a house
cold room insulation lines the walls purchased second hand from wreckers
the racking if you get professional stuff is a rip off.
I simply went to a metal supply place and purchased galvinised steel mesh and separating them with hard wood for instant cheap mesh

http://www.scottmetals.com.au/mesh.html#galvmesh

I have a split system bog standard fujitsu and maintain 15 degrees
BUT
you need to drain the water away as it does build up

good luck everyone

michel
brisbane

[Mark J]

Great work Nick. The spot looks perfect for what you did - was always meant for a wine cellar/vault!

My house is coming along with lockup stage in the next week or two. Unfortunately the cellar (with no lid and no roof until recently) was a perfect drain for all the rain we have had. Filled it 2/3 deep of a lovely mix of rain runoff and red mud (15k litres worth). I pumped it out a few weeks back when the roof went on, and my wife even got in and cleaned up the 1cm thick smelly sludge on the bottom (she's a trooper). I managed to spend some time in it nice and clean and imagining walls chocked with wine - then the builder filled it up with insulation rolls....

We did have a scare just after cleaning it out as during one of the frequent downpours we have had, the water built up along the side of the slab and came very close to entering the air con and power conduit in the side of the slab - and filling the cellar up again. Won't be an issue once the roof down pipes are connected but was a concern there for a bit, especially with all the insulation sitting in it.

I will post more photos once more actually gets done on it, but really for now nothing has changed except there is a house over the top of it!

Just as a matter of protocol - should I start a new thread detailing my cellar progress or continue to hijack Nicks impressive work? Somewhat late (sorry Nick)

[Rednick]

Sounds like we both have very understanding wives Gotta love the red earth, stains like anything!

No problems with thread hijacking, it's better to have it in one place.

Look forward to seeing the picks - Nick

[ticklenow1]

RedNick,

I am also building a cellar. Mine is a little smaller, just an under stairs job. Hopefully I should be able to get about 400 to 500 bottles on homemade racks and several dozen boxes. I am also using a refrigeration unit as well, the smallest my fridgey mate could find me.

My question to you is, why the use of oil based undercoat? Did you use an oil based topcoat as well? I ask this as I have used Thermowall, which is basically high density polystyrene which is used for exterior cladding. 75mm in all studs and 40mm for the interior walls and 60mm for the ceiling. For the interior which I will then put a thin coat of render over, then paint. I was thinking of using bathroom paint (which is meant to be mold and mildew resistant, not sure if I believe this though) which is acrylic. What do you reckon?

Also, as you are using a fridge unit, how are your humidity levels going? I am told that in our climate (SEQLD) there should be no need for the old towel in the water bucket trick (or for the more fastidious - a humidifier) as the fridge unit takes no humidity out of the air.

Thanks for any help you may offer and we can have a decent chat at the offline.

Cheers Ian

[Rednick]

Hi Ian,

The Oil based undercoat is there as an additonal vapour barrier - I have plastic sheeting behind the fibro wall but figured it wouldn't hurt to have an additional line of defence. The topcoat is just a standard acrylic, no issues to report with it as yet. Humidity is averaging around the low 60s which I'm happy with and agree if using a fridge unit as opposed to aircon you shouldn't have humidity issues especially in Qld.

If the polysyrene is waterproof and the seals are aswell then there's probably no need for the oil based paint.

Look forward to catching up at the offline - Nick.

[Michael McNally]

Hi Nick

I was talking to Yasmin on Friday about the cellar. The slab is being poured this Wed/Thur (weather gods permitting) and we were discussing the cellar and the racking came up. When I said yours cost nearly $4,000 Yas had some minor conniptions. By chance we looked at ebay and there were some racks being sold by a bar in the Valley that is having a refurb. I went and saw them Saturday morning and they have some surface rust but are strong. In the end I got 4 x 216 bottle racks for $120. Total. Not each! I will have to clean them up a bit and spraypaint them, but I reckon I have saved myself at least $2,500. When I mentioned that I should have that extra to spend on wine I got a death stare worthy of Julie Bishop.

Sorry, this is not a skite, just to let people know that ebay is worth a look for such things.

Cheers

Michael

[Luke W]

ur a tin ass Michael

[Rednick]

Nice one Michael, definitely worth keeping an eye on ebay - I managed to get rid of my wine fridges for a good price on it - ended up covering just under half the cost of the cellar.

Spend the difference at vintage cellars and then you can say that you "saved" 30% - so it's a bargain surely

[ticklenow1]

Hi Ian,

The Oil based undercoat is there as an additonal vapour barrier - I have plastic sheeting behind the fibro wall but figured it wouldn't hurt to have an additional line of defence. The topcoat is just a standard acrylic, no issues to report with it as yet. Humidity is averaging around the low 60s which I'm happy with and agree if using a fridge unit as opposed to aircon you shouldn't have humidity issues especially in Qld.

If the polysyrene is waterproof and the seals are aswell then there's probably no need for the oil based paint.

Look forward to catching up at the offline - Nick.

Cheers for the info Nick.

I will have to make sure that the render that I am using will be OK for the oil based undercoat and if it is compatable, I think I will go down that path. It can't hurt. The polystyrene is moisture, mould and mildew resistant, that is why I used it. It works out about half the price of proper cool room panels and is so much easier to use. The fact that the cellar is under my stairs and they do a 180 degree turn, made using the colourband panels almost impossible to do it myself. To get it done professioally would have cost thousands for a very small cellar. I haven't even finished putting the panels on the walls yet, or an insulated door and no refrigeration, and the tempeature variation is only 1.5 degrees over the course of 24 hours. I am hoping that once I am finished that the refrigeration will not up my power bill much at all. Actually, if I can get rid of a couple of fridges, it should come down. I am not getting the fridge unit insatalled until Nov. 20, so by the offline I should have a good idea of how it is going. I will also have to look at some kind of sound barrier for the neighbours as well I guess.

Now if only I can find some cheap racks like Michael did!. But I think I will have to manufacture my own though. Just to maximise the space I have. If I can get to 800 bottles (I am dreamimng now though), I will have no need for the wine fridges.

Cheers
Ian

[ticklenow1]

Nick,

Does your fan run all the time. My fridge guy has wired it up so the fan in the cellar runs 24/7. I am not sure if this is how it should be.

Ian

[Rednick]

Hi Ian - nope, there is a 2 degree cut off - so my thermostat is set to 14.5 degrees, the fan / compressor will run to get it to that temperature, it will then turn off and wait for the temperature to reach 16.5 degrees before turning back on, these settings can be changed on my thermostat unit. It took a fair bit of trial and error but this had given me a varying bottle temp of between 13.5 & 14.5 degres throughout most of the cellar.

Are you using an aircon unit or refrigeration, if aircon I wouln't worry about it running all the time as the air coming out is probably somewhere between 16 & 18 and should be fine, the air coming out of a reefer is a lot colder (as they are designed to get to fridge temperatures) so without the cut off I would be below 10 degrees and possibly getting down to 5 or so.

Hope this helps - cheers,

Nick